Episode 22 – Nominal and Plumb-bob revisited

Several things are discussed in this episode. First, I discuss the many ways you can connect with me and this site.

via E-mail — there is a menu item on the home page of this site named “Contact me” and that provides the e-mail address which is garyfox@create-and-make.com

On the main page there are several buttons for going to this sites. Facebook, Twitter, and RSS feeds. I am brand new to twitter, but I will at least use it to provide links to these posts when they are created. Once I learn twitter, I hope to use it more interactively. The facebook page was created to provide an opportunity for members to post and have interactive conversations as well as updates on these posts. The RSS feed has been updated to use feedburner because I have been told it is the best for the RSS feeds the old RSS feed may no-longer be working.

Other changes is I have added a Tweetbutton should you want to tweet a post to your friends. The final change is a button at the bottom of each post providing a nice way to create a printed copy or pdf of these posts.

A final announcement is a proposed contest each month. Probably 5 items will be collected each month and the contest will be about the most creative way to repurpose these. Details are yet to be worked out, but the proposed rules will be posted on a “Contest” page very soon.

This weekend I worked on a small project that required making a bracket that fit around a 2X4. When I built the bracket, it fit snug around one 2X4 but was a sloppy fit around another one. I had to understand why the two were not the same. It turns out the small one was not to the standard specifications of 3 1/2 inches as shown in the attached photographs.

The "big" 2X4 - a snug fit

The "skinny" one. Notice the space on the left hand side.

Measuring the "big" one - it was 3 1/2 inches across.

Measuring the "skinny" one - It is only about 3 5/16 inches wide - 3/16 below specifications.

The final thing discussed in this post was mention of an old unusual instrument that included a plumb-bob This instrument was called The FAUSTMANN HYPSOMETER and was used to measure the height of trees. Pictures of this device can be found on this site.